Maldives to hold run-off presidential election

MALE, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Maldives will see a run-off presidential election on Oct. 29 as none of the six candidates was able to secure more than 50 percent of the votes in the Indian Ocean archipelago's first-ever multiparty presidential election held on Wednesday.

Elections Commissioner Mohamed Ibrahim told reporters midnight on Thursday that the incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom will compete with his main rival, the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party's Mohamed Nasheed in the second round.

Ibrahim said Gayoom came first with 71,731 votes or 40.63 percent of the total 176,567 valid votes. He was followed by Nasheed, who bagged 44,293 votes or 25.09 percent of the total.

Other votes were divided among the independent candidate HassanSaeed (16.78 percent), the Jumhooree Party's (Republican Party) Qasim Ibrahim (15.32 percent), the Islamic Democratic Party's UmarNaseer (1.40 percent) and the Social Liberal Party's Ibrahim Ismail (0.78 percent).

The commissioner said the turnout was 85.38 percent and the election was largely free and fair.

Supporters of Gayoom and Nasheed celebrated their candidates' victories separately Thursday night, with Nasheed vowing to beat Gayoom in the run-off.

More than 1,000 local and foreign observers monitored the voting and counting process. They said the election process was peaceful, although some complaints have been reported.

Elections Commission's Complaint Bureau Manager Nadine Washeed said on Thursday that her office recorded 1047 complaints, most of them relating to the registration of the voters.

"Until all the complaints have been investigated and solved, we can not say the election is free and fair," Washeed said.

Some people gathered in Male on Wednesday to protest that their names did not appear on the polling list. The issued was solved later as the Elections Commission allowed all eligible voters having National Identity Cards to vote.

According to the new constitution ratified by Gayoom in August, the president shall be elected directly by the people and over 50 percent of the votes are needed to be elected.

If no candidate obtains such majority, a run-off election must be held within 21 days after the first election. It will be contested by the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes in the first election.

Analysts say Gayoom will have a hard time in a run-off if supporters of the other opposition candidates rally behind the MDP' s candidate Nasheed.

With a population of 300,000, the Maldives are a group of 1,192islands scattered across 800 km of the Indian Ocean neighboring India and Sri Lanka.

Supported by tourism, fishing and shipping, the 850 million-U.S.-dollar economy grew by 7.6 percent in 2007 and the Maldivian government expects the economy to grow by 8.3 percent for 2008.

However, the IMF said the economic growth would slow to 6.5 percent in 2008 and its inflation would double to around 15 percent.